The atmosphere has a stomach ache from too much gas. The excessive gas causes global warming, and it is known as Carbon dioxide or CO2.

Can the atmosphere get rid of the CO2 to slow down global warming? Here’s the simple problem. CO2 has been stored in the ground for centuries. When we mine the earth for our energy and burn it, we let the CO2 loose into the atmosphere. That causes global warming. Our problem is how to recapture it and put it back into the ground. We can try to convert it with our trees and seawater to its original balance in the atmosphere. But there is too much. Some say that the earth will end up like Mars, a lifeless planet with an atmosphere made up of 95 percent CO2.

We can copy the action of trees and seawater. To do this, engineers are involved in clever ways to help get rid of CO2. It is called CO2 capture where we store it and return it to the earth where it can no longer be in the atmosphere.

The Paris accord on climate change set the goal of keeping the planet’s warming below two degrees Celsius increase. To do that CO2 has to be kept from the atmosphere so that the warming will slow down. Pumping it into seawater has drawbacks. One idea is to plant more trees. Trees naturally absorb CO2. Unfortunately, to be successful so much land would have to be planted to trees that the land available for food production would decrease.

So we are faced with the dilemma of cutting our production of CO2 or finding ways to trap it. Either we slow down our energy dependent culture or we face the increasing cost of destruction of civilization by global warming storms. The increased costs of repairing living areas from the destruction of massive storms caused by out of control global warming must be offset. The standard cost benefit is obvious as we count the high costs of modern hurricanes. By increasing the investment in CO2 capture, we can benefit by slowing the destruction by global warming which offsets the cost of capture. As the increase in global warming comes in the future, CO2 capture and its cost will become even more necessary and justified.

One idea is improving concrete manufacturing. About five percent of human caused CO2 emissions are caused by making concrete. In MIT Technology Review, the plan to reduce CO2 is explained. In energy plants, flue gases are used with salt water to make sludge of cement. It is the same process that makes seashells and ocean reefs in nature. This sludge or cement is used in the mix of concrete used in construction thus converting the CO2 into storage and out of the atmosphere. We’ll drive on highway concrete made partly from CO2.

At Arizona State University, Klaus Lackner has come up with an ingenious solution to capture CO2 from the air so it can be locked away underground, back to where it was for eons before we released it. The technology follows what we already know about carbon scrubbers, equipment already used to remove CO2 from industrial smokestacks. Lachner’s machine looks like a large container size box. Lackner is sure he can design much smaller devices, perhaps units that can be placed in a person’s backyard to scrub the air.

Here’s how it works. An absorbent plastic sheet called an ion exchange membrane, which is used in water purification, traps the CO2. A liquid solution then rinses off the CO2 and electricity releases pure CO2 from that liquid. The captured gas can then be used for various purposes or stored underground. It is kept from returning to the atmosphere. .

Lackner has another idea. Since trees are nature’s major collector of CO2 in the process of converting the gas, he is also developing artificial trees that work much better than natural trees. Each tree, in using his inventions, will store more than a thousand times as much CO2 as a regular tree. Imagine having one of his futuristic and beautiful plastic and metal devices in your garden.

According to the World Bank each American is responsible for 17 tons of CO2 a year or 93 pounds a day of which a great deal is due to our automobile driving. Could we be moving towards a backyard where we keep our own CO2 machine or towards carrying a private artificial tree in a knapsack on our back? We might then capture and store our personal collection of CO2, perhaps giving it to national disposal plants? I imagine we’d stagger a little walking down the street with as much as 93 pounds a day collected in our backpack.

In John Sandford’s new thriller, Saturn Run, the famous mystery writer tells of a future voyage to Saturn where an American team learns of the future from aliens. One of the most fascinating fictional disclosures is the universe is filled with great starships, They carry whole cultures in search of new planets to replace their home planets destroyed by global warming from carbon dioxide (CO2). http://www.amazon.com/Saturn-Run-John-Sandford-ebook/dp/B00USMCJX6/

On the other hand, we may have the same problem here on Earth. Our planet produces and absorbs CO2 in a balance through oceans and plant life. In this balance much of that CO2 becomes stored in the Earth in carbon fossils. In simple terms, when we burn fossil fuels we release that stored CO2 and cause an imbalance. This imbalance contributes to the increase in the CO2 that blankets the earth and our climate gets “global warming.” Essentially, we use energy from fossil fuels to make life more convenient, yet the result is higher unabsorbed CO2 causing a warming planet. This is pretty much the theory that governments are working on to fight global warming by cutting back on burning fossil fuels.

What can an individual do about the problem of too much CO2 on our planet? Let’s try to get a handle on the size of the problem.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a partial answer for citizens. It is called the Household Emission Calculator. It lists the assumptions and references for categories of CO2 emissions. The calculator allows you to analyze your CO2 contributions in pounds of CO2 and perhaps cut back on them. http://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/ .

Here are some of the EPA categories and instructions on how to calculate your own household contribution. You can learn how much you can save if, for example, you lower the house room temperature only one degree.

Category one: Household vehicles. There are two calculations: One uses the EPA statistics drawn from fuel economy. The other is higher and uses the full fuel lifecycle including extraction, processing and transportation of fuel.

Category five: Propane, which if you use it, averages about 5,679 pounds, assuming 38 gallons /month.

Category six: Waste Disposal. According to the EPA if we can reduce packaging and non-packaging paper products, recycle construction debris and improve composting and recycling we could substantially cut CO2 emissions. Perhaps we could cut our household contribution to this CO2 total if we send our newspaper, glass, plastic, metal and magazine trash to the most efficient recycling which is the cause of the CO2.

Think about the real cost of our inconvenient product of easy living. It’s a debt we can’t repay. However, we can cut down the increasing debt. For example, if we walk more and drive less we can make a difference in producing CO2. Perish the thought, but we could turn off the car air conditioner and drive with the windows down. We can all imagine steps we can take. Remember, if the planet gets too sick, there is really no good cure or pill we can give it. We don’t want our grandchildren to have to migrate to a new planet on one of those starships that Sandford writes about in his novel.

Years ago, I had a dream that I was in my studio working on a story. I heard a tap at my back door. I stood up and went to the door. I remember thinking that one of the neighborhood children must be there asking me for help finding one of their soccer balls constantly kicked over my fence.

When I opened the door I looked around my large backyard with all its heavy shrubs and my wife’s flower beds, but spotted no children. Perhaps, I thought, someone is playing a trick on me. The kids are always up to something and kidding around is part of life on my street. Perhaps my wife could speak to some of the other women on the street and see what could be done. Honestly, I work at home and could use a little more peace and quiet.

I pulled on the handle and closed the large wooden door. Just as I turned towards my studio, there was another tap.

This time I opened the door and looked down more closely. A bundle of brown and black fur moved near my shoe. Two small animals were resting there. Their eyes were on me. They were chipmunks and one had no tail.

Now, this is the funny part. My mind received a message. How that happened I do not know nor understand. Be that as it may, the message was in good English and in a courteous tone.

The chipmunk with no tail asked, in a chuckling sort of voice, “Can I have a drink of water from your kitchen faucet?”

After I recovered from surprise, I spoke, “Sure.” Then I added, after glancing around the large backyard, still wet from morning dew, “What happened to the water out back?”

He nodded that he understood me and sent his mental answer, “It is polluted.”

Needless to say, and even though I was not a little surprised at the pollution, I asked him to wait a moment. I rushed to my kitchen and fetched a saucer of cool water. I put this in front of them. They stood on hind feet, front paws on the side of the small glass dish. They gulped and licked the water.

After a minute, the one with no tail rubbed his mouth with his front paws and sat back satisfied. Apparently chipmunks don’t spend much time doing any one thing. He chuckled again and sent his mental message,

“Thanks. This warm weather makes me thirsty especially when I run around chasing my girl.”

“What happened to your tail?”

He replied over his shoulder as they ran away, “My mom said the bad water she drank caused me to be born without a tail.”

When I woke up I went to the back door and looked out. The yard was the same as always. I placed a bowl of fresh drinking water on the ground and watched as the chipmunks came to drink. I didn’t see one with no tail and I didn’t get any mental messages.

Later as I began studying better methods of providing wholesome drinking water to animals, I attended a meeting of my bird watching friends at the suburban home of the club president. It was a colorful get-together with about fifty birders, both men and women and a few children. There was the usual collection of imitation of bird sounds with human callers showing their latest voices. I remember one caller voicing a plaintive nuthatch which was delightful.

I was in a conversation with several of my friends when an older gentleman joined us. We were talking about my new favorite subject, providing fresh water to wildlife, and he asked me, “It’s foolishness. Don’t you think that birds can find water?”

Well, he was a distinguished birder, known for achieving a life list of hundreds of local birds he had seen. I didn’t want to start an argument. I did reply, “I know that they can find some kind of water around the yard.”

He replied, “That’s the whole point. Nature takes care of itself.”

Then I asked him a more pointed question. “Would you drink from the puddles on your lawn?”

He smiled at me as he realized I’d just pointed out the whole issue. He walked away without answering.

These days, each morning I go to my backyard and place fresh water outside for the wildlife. I always look around for a chipmunk with no tail. He’ll be a descendant of the one I dreamed about. If I should spot him, I’ll look into his eyes, give him a wink, and let him know that I’m trying.

Something to remember:

Water covers 71 percent of the earth’s surface. Of this 96 percent is in the oceans and about 2 percent is in groundwater. 2 more percent is in ice and the rest is in the atmosphere. Only 2.5 percent of this water is fresh and almost 99 percent of that is in ice or underground, not easily available to animals. Less that .3 percent is in rivers and lakes and the atmosphere. A tiny bit more is carried in plants and animal bodies.

Here’s another interesting fact. About 70 percent of the small portion of the water on earth that is drinkable by animals is used in human agriculture including animals raised by humans to be eaten.

From Amazon: “Cambridge, England, 1905. Jane Porter is hardly a typical woman of her time. The only female student in Cambridge University’s medical program, she is far more comfortable in a lab coat dissecting corpses than she is in a corset and gown sipping afternoon tea. A budding paleoanthropologist, Jane dreams of traveling the globe in search of fossils that will prove the evolutionary theories of her scientific hero, Charles Darwin.

When dashing American explorer Ral Conrath invites Jane and her father to join an expedition deep into West Africa, she can hardly believe her luck. Africa is every bit as exotic and fascinating as she has always imagined, but Jane quickly learns that the lush jungle is full of secrets―and so is Ral Conrath. When danger strikes, Jane finds her hero, the key to humanity’s past, and an all-consuming love in one extraordinary man: Tarzan of the Apes.”

Critical Acclaim: “Finally an honest portrayal of the only woman of whom I have been really, really jealous. What a wonderful idea to write this book. Now I am jealous all over again!” ―Jane Goodall PhD, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace

My impression of this fictional book is that its fast paced adventure takes the early concept of Jane and Tarzan in Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1912 pulp magazine story and adapts it to the modern world of science. What Maxwell also does also is remind us in 2012 writing style of self reliance. It is humanity in a world without safety or assurance us of a long life. In this way it stirs us to think of ourselves as more than we may be in a our current life. Its a powerful and entertaining reminder of the wonder of nature around us and the freedom it offers is inspiring.

Kenneth Good’s non fiction scientific book prompts us to ask ourselves the question. “How are we so advanced from these people?” Moreover, “Can we live with nature the way they do?” Many of us who have deserted the city for the homesteading lifestyle will readily admit that any of us can do this and happily so. The book gives us pause in our civilized aspirations to ask whether what we are doing with our lives is really worth it and whether these wilderness folks know something that we don’t.

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